What The Witch Left, by Ruth Chew – Book Review

Katy and Louise and Louise are playing at Katy’s house after school one day when Louise discovers a locked drawer in a bureau Katy’s room.  Katy’s mother uses the chest of drawers to store things and Katy is not supposed to go into it.

The girls get curious and Katy knows where her mother keeps the key.  When they open the locked drawer they discover items that a friend of Katy’s grandmother has left to be stored.  The girls find a round mirror, a bathrobe with a hood, a pair of gloves, rubber boots and an old metal box.  Fun and adventure ensues as the girls find that each of the items is not what it seems.

I am a big fan of The Wednesday Witch, also by Ruth Chew, so much so that I never read any of her other novels.  I was obsessed with the one!  I was very curious to read What The Witch Left when Dawn from She Is Too Fond of Books recommended that we read it for her Twenty Minute Book Club on That’s How I Blog!.  We read both of the books.

Ruth Chew seems to return to some common themes in this book as she did in The Wednesday Witch.  In both books the girls in the stories are digging into possessions that their mothers have asked them not to touch, they go out for unsupervised picnics in the park and encounter magical items which cause some adult to have an allergic reaction.  What The Witch Left is a light hearted and fun exploration of magic.  Each of the items is explored in successive chapters.  I really need the red boots that traveled hundreds of miles with each step taken.  There are a many places that I could go in just a few quick steps.

While it was fun to see what each of the items did and to get the flashback of what childhood looked like in the seventies, there wasn’t much else going on in the way of plot beyond the discovery of the magical properties of each item.  I had some good laughs with the girls packing leftover turkey necks to go into their lunch along with apples and nuts.  I can’t imagine any second or third grader packing such a lunch today!

What the Witch Left was a fun and quick read and if you have younger kids that you want to introduce to magic without any of the more frightening elements then this is the book to start with.  I much prefer The Wednesday Witch’s more developed plot, but this was a fun stroll down memory lane.

FTC Disclosure – I am an Amazon Associate. This book is from my personal library collection.

Other reviews and posts:

1. The Wednesday Witch, by Ruth Chew – Book Review
2. The Demon of River Heights, by Stefan Petrucha & Sho Murase – Book Review
3. The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Warner Chandler – Book Review
4. Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger – Book Review
5. The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos, by Margaret Mascarenhas – Book Review